We burn up lots of rubber to see just how much Goodyear has improved its Eagle F1 Supercar G:2 and other high-performance tires.

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Goodyear's newest ultra-high-performance tire, the Eagle F1 Supercar G:2, is standard equipment on the and , and part of the optional SVT Performance Package for the . While we've driven those cars already, the Goodyear folks wanted to give journalists a proper apples to apples comparison to show just how much the Supercar G:2 has improved over the previous Eagle F1 Supercar (G:2, by the way, stands for Generation 2, but Goodyear's lawyers thought spelling it out could imply there was something wrong with the first generation). To do that, we spent a day at the Bob Bondurant High Performance Driving School near Phoenix, Arizona, for a back-to-back comparison of the G:1 and G:2 tires fitted to Corvette Z06s. To add a bit of competition, the Bondurant instructors designed a series of driving exercises in a "media challenge" format to showcase the entire Goodyear Eagle lineup.

To get us warmed up (as if we needed it with temps hovering around 110 degrees F), we started off with a short autocross. For this exercise we used fitted with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric tires, size 205/55ZR-17 front, 235/50ZR-17 rear. Labeled as a high-performance summer tire, the F1 Asymmetric has been on the market since 2007. It features the so-called Active CornerGrip Technology which helps the tire maintain a more even tread contact pressure via a stiffer sidewall due to an Aramid reinforcement. Despite the high level of grip afforded by these tires, the underlying factor to a quick time around the autocross was to minimize the Cayman's desire to get into time-sucking understeer moments. In our brief few laps, the tires held up well and proved very controllable, no doubt partly due to the Cayman's forgiving nature.

In another "steer around the sea of orange cones" event, we piloted shod with Goodyear Eagle GTs (size 245/45ZR-18 at all four corners) in a competition that consisted of two slalom sections connected by a decreasing-radius left-hand sweeper. Although the Solstice definitely didn't achieve "core product status" at Pontiac, the high-performance all-season Eagle GT, which was originally launched in 2008, surely has for Goodyear, with over 2 million tires sold (and available in over 50 sizes).

The Eagle GT's dual-use nature is achieved via an outboard High Performance Zone for handling and an inboard All Season Zone for traction, with microgrooves "locking together in handling maneuvers to provide a solid foundation for cornering," according to Goodyear. Considering these were all-season tires and we were running them in dry, hot conditions, they offered a surprising amount of grip as the Solstice slithered its way around the cones. In fact, the tires offered far more grip than the Solstice did power.

If Friday night drag racing is your thing, Goodyear has a tire for you: The Eagle SS Drag Radial. It's even DOT-legal, although Goodyear says the tire is "intended for race-track use only." The SS Drag Radial offers several advantages over competitors in this emerging segment. First, the tire's longer life allows for a claimed 10-15 extra drag runs. Second, the Eagle undercuts the weight of competitors by as much as 6 lb.

Goodyear fitted these tires, size P275/40R-17, to four identical and set us loose at Firebird Raceway to give us a taste of ¼-mile bracket racing. If bracket racing confuses you, well, join the club. See, you don't just run as fast as you can; you actually guess the time you'll run; then make sure you don't run faster than that time; yet also make sure you beat the guy in the other lane. Still with me?

I won my two qualifying rounds with reaction times of .196 and .183 (E.T.s of 14.153 and 14.270, respectively), and then handily won my first round of competition. But in the second round I got some wheelspin while power-braking too much at the line and was eliminated...those super-sticky Goodyears broke loose a little easier than I thought they would.

Moving on, it was back to the autocross course. But this time instead of lithe sports cars, the Bondurant folks thought it would be funny if they put us in police-package Ford Crown Victorias and . Now it might seem like a really bad idea to put big, heavy and relatively slow vehicles on a tight autocross track. But due to the stiffer police suspension as well as impressively grippy Goodyear Eagle RS-As (size P225/60R-16 on the Crown Vic, P265/60R-17 on the Tahoe), this was actually one of the most entertaining events of the day. Especially since after my devastating defeat over at Firebird Raceway, I decided my goal with the police vehicles would be simply to see how much I could drift them, quick times be damned.

The Tahoe, surprisingly, proved easiest to slide around, its ability to rotate under braking and quicker-reacting transmission allowing lurid powerslides on corner exit. Fun! But slow. My Crown Vic time proved 6th quick out of 10 journalists, my run in the Tahoe 7th.

The final exercise of the day was the one we had shown up for in the first place: Time Attack hot laps in Corvette Z06s fitted with the new G:2 around an abbreviated version of Bondurant's road course. What's so special about the G:2, anyway? Goodyear says it's nothing less than the most aggressive Eagle tire ever created. In a true race on Sunday, sell on Monday scenario, the tire uses a newly formulated, racing-derived tread compound in an effort to provide stupendous grip and feedback.

And it works, as every single journalist went quicker with the G:2s than the G:1s, some by as much as 3 sec. over the 30-35 sec. lap. For myself, I went 0.82 sec. quicker during my two laps with the G:2 than my three laps with the G:1. But more than that, the higher grip and improved braking confidence of the G:2 transformed the Z06—which is known as a squirrely and unforgiving beast in at-the-limit situations—into a slightly kinder soul. Impressive, and I bet pre-2011 Z06 owners will be beating down the doors at Goodyear retailers to get their hands on the G:2.